906 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
suffering from tuberculosis may contain tubercle bacilli. The 
bacilli consumed in the milk by infants and children may lead 
to tuberculosis (consumption) in one or more of its numerous 
forms. It has been the object of investigators, both in the 
medical and veterinary professions, to find out exactly under 
what condition the milk from tuberculous cows may be danger¬ 
ous. 
Both classes maintain that the tubercle bacilli may pass 
into the milk when a cow is affected with tuberculosis to a 
marked degree, or even when the udder remains free from dis¬ 
ease. Tuberculosis deposits in the udder, when they have 
reached a certain size, can be detected in life. For this reason 
the inspector should condemn the milk of all cattle suffering 
from tuberculosis, because even if the udder is not visibly dis¬ 
eased tuberculosis may nevertheless be present. The great im¬ 
portance of a regular periodical inspection of dairy cattle is 
thus made manifest. If only such animals in which the udder 
is found diseased would be condemned and the milk rejected, a 
large amount of the injury done by tubercle bacilli in milk 
could thereby be avoided. 
Those tuberculous animals in which the disease of the udder 
escapes attention because of its restricted character would still 
distribute tubercle bacilli. But inspection done by a compe¬ 
tent veterinarian would largely relieve the apprehensions of 
the public, which have been aroused by the extended discussion 
which this dread plague of tuberculosis has undergone in all 
journals. But the public should be made aware of the great 
danger in the use of milk from cows which are beginning to 
emaciate or whose udders are diseased. If we bear in mind 
the wide distribution of infectious diseases in cattle, especially 
dairy herds, it would lead us to believe that dairy herds col¬ 
lected in different localities were always found to be more or 
less diseased or infected. It is essential, therefore, to guard the 
milk consuming public against disease, to look with suspicion 
upon all dairy cattle, and more especially those that have not 
been inspected. 
The greater dependence of the cities on the food furnished 
in the shape of meat and milk has with unerring certainty mul¬ 
tiplied the number of tubercular cases. If the mothers better 
appreciated the dangers to which their little ones are exposed, 
numerous diseases from the use of meat and milk from un¬ 
known sources, especially in the summer time, when it may be 
teeming with bacterial growth, more of them would exercise 
